Blackstone/GSO price €403.35 million CLO; about €5 billion Europe CLO issuance forecast

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., May 16 - GSO Capital Partners LP raised €403.35 million in a collateralized loan obligation offering with the €240 million triple A slice priced at six-month Euribor plus 130 basis points, according to market sources on Thursday.

More than €1 billion of CLOs have priced in Europe this year with transactions also brought by Cairn Capital Ltd., Pramerica Investment Management Ltd. and Apollo Global Management, LLC.

Several new deals are expected in Europe in the months ahead, including from Goldentree Asset Management LP, according to market sources.

"There's a lot of deals in the pipeline over there," one source said. "We'll probably see about 15 or more in 2013, so probably a total of less than €5 billion or so of total CLO volume in Europe."

The €150 billion European loan market is not yet as active compared to the U.S. loan market of about $550 billion, market sources note.

"People expect there to be a huge jump in issuance in 2014 in Europe, but there's still more regulation and more stipulations by the ratings agencies that you have to go through in order to get a deal done," a source said.

Grand Harbour prices

Grand Harbour I priced €403.35 million of floating-rate and subordinated notes due 2026 in the transaction.

The €240 million tranche of class A-1 senior secured floating-rate notes (/AAA/AAA) priced at six-month Euribor plus 130 bps.

Citigroup Inc., London branch, arranged the offering.

Blackstone/GSO Debt Funds Management Europe Ltd. will manage the European arbitrage cash-flow CLO, which is collateralized by a revolving pool of euro-denominated senior secured loans and bonds.

Proceeds will be used to purchase a €400 million portfolio of European leveraged loans and bonds.

Palmer Square eyed

Palmer Square CLO 2013-1 Ltd./Palmer Square CLO 2013-1 LLC raised $362.35 million of notes due May 15, 2025 in an offering expected to close on Friday, according to an informed source.

The deal priced through a private placement in April and included $212.8 million of series A-1 floating-rate notes (/AAA/) priced at Libor plus 125 bps.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC was the underwriter.

Palmer Square Capital Management LLC manages the CLO, which is collateralized by a revolving pool of U.S. dollar-denominated broadly syndicated senior secured loans.

The investment management firm is based in Leawood, Kan.

On Thursday, BlueMountain CLO 2013-1 Ltd./BlueMountain CLO 2013-1 LLC closed on its $514.2 million CLO offering of floating-rate, fixed-rate and subordinated notes due May 15, 2025, a market source said.

The CLO, managed by BlueMountain Capital Management LLC, priced $310 million of series A-1 floating-rate notes (/AAA/) at Libor plus 120 bps.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. arranged the offering.

The CLO is backed by a revolving pool of mostly broadly syndicated senior secured loans.

BlueMountain Capital Management is a private investment company based in New York and London.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.